Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Money ...

Money means many different things to different people and in trying to get our families finances "straightened out" we are taking a hard look at what all we have and where it is located. (This is also very much driven by the marshaling of our assets to try and buy a new house). 1 giant account, 5 accounts at 3 banks, debit cards over credit cards, all sorts of options exist to thing about but what about Cash? Like the paper or things that go clang when put into a coke machine.

Slate had a decent article about a Cashless Society and what a version of that might actually save the government. Now will we forever do without cash, I highly doubt it but maybe the groundwork is being laid for a dramatically lessened usage of "cash". Without doing the research money goes back to "pre-history" (before written) but it is assumed that at one time people would trade shells and such as currency. Then the Romans really figured out how to do coinage. And today, in the state we are in, we are living by the Roman coinage idea having not evolved much at all on this front. We have the ability to carry everything on a card with a metallic strip. Heck any college campus is the perfect proving ground with student ID's serving as ways to open doors, to check out books, to buy meals at the food court. Why has this not graduated to the rest of society? Maybe it is just a timing deal? Perhaps it is analogous to e-books where the next "generation" are digital native and don't find reading a book on a screen as odd. I'm not saying books will go away, but much like cash/coin currency I think these students are the generation that will also say I don't carry cash and it will eventually be severely phased down (not out) as well. -- I will also admit I'm one of these "no cash" folks as I rarely have more than 5 bucks in my wallet but a credit card, debit card, and change in the car for parking seems to get me along just fine.